FINDING THE RIGHT GAME
GAME TYPE On the Hero Poker game software you can currently choose from four different types of poker games. 1. No Limit Texas Hold’em 2. Fixed Limit Texas Hold’em 3. Pot Limit Texas Hold’em 4. Pot Limit Omaha In order to find the right game for you, take the time to try out each of the games on offer and you will be able to find which game or games you enjoy the most. Some players prefer the limit or pot limit games as they are slightly slower than no limit. This is mainly due to the nature of the betting structure which makes it more difficult to force players out of the hand. However it is considered a steady game with less risk and less return and generally you can make steady progress. Also if you are new to poker playing Limit Hold’em is a great way to practice and learn without the possibility of losing much. Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) differs from Texas Hold’em games in that each player receives four hole cards instead of two and must use two of their cards with three community cards to make their final hand. With twice as many hole cards the hand combinations in play increase making PLO an exciting game to play. BANKROLL GUIDELINES Depending on which game type you choose to play follow the guidelines below to manage your bankroll. No Limit Hold’em – Minimum Bankroll should be approximately 20 buy ins or 2000 Big Blinds to the table stakes. Follow the table guide below: INSERT TABLE HERE Fixed Limit Hold’em – Minimum Bankroll should be approximately 400 Big Blinds of the table stakes. Follow the table guide below: INSERT TABLE HERE Pot Limit Hold’em – Minimum Bankroll should be approximately 20 buy ins or 2000 Big Blinds to the table stakes. Follow the table guide below: INSERT TABLE HERE As PLO is known to have larger swings with the numerous hand combinations available it is recommended that you have 30 buy ins for good bankroll management. Follow the table guidelines below: INSERT TABLE HERE MULTI-TABLING What is Multi-tabling? Multi-tabling is a way of playing online poker in which you play on more than one table at the same time. Some poker players choose to multi-table because it’s faster and more fun and of course enables you to increase your winnings and bankroll over time. If you can be a winning poker player playing one table, you could also be able to be a winning poker player at two, three, four, or many more tables at the same time. With the power and capabilities of the Hero Poker Game software your options are endless. To start multi-tabling simply click on more tables and take your seat and they will open up in your screen simultaneously. You can position and size each table to suit your screen and in a way which you find comfortable or simply click on the menu button at the top right hand corner of any table and select “Tile Tables” and your tables will be instantly “Tiles” to fit your screen. STARTING HANDS It is a known fact that pocket Aces are the absolute best hand to have before the flop in Texas Hold’em, but ranking the actual exact winning percentage of each poker hand against a random opponent’s cards becomes all too unclear. It is good to actually see how specific starting hand combinations rank against each other in terms of how much and how often they win on average. Below is a list of Texas Hold’em starting hands organized by relative strength. See how the cards you play rank. HOLD’EM STARTING CARDS RANKED BY WINNING PERCENTAGE The following tables below contain every 2-card possible combination you can be dealt in Texas Hold’em. The hands are arranged by largest hole card and first include a section of pairs. Each hand will be followed by its long-term winning percentage against a specific number of opponents holding random cards. To find a hand, look it up by its largest card. INSERT TABLES HERE. Bottom line, the lesson here is to hold strong starting cards and eliminate competition when you hold a favorite. You can see the extremely low average winning percentage for commonly played hands like Q10 or J9 offsuit so our advice would have to be to stick to the premium hands as you learn the game. As you gain more experience, you can experiment with those lower percentage starting cards but you will need to be disciplined enough to learn when to continue beyond the flop. Interestingly (but not surprisingly), every hand wins less when you’re playing against more opponents. Even the top two hold’em hands of AA and KK win, on average, less than half of the pots when 4 or 5 players stay in. Your goal should be to eliminate as much competition preflop and increase your odds of that premium hand holding up. The hands that you want to encourage opponents with, such as low suited connectors, have such low winning expectations anyway that you’ll need huge pot odds from the extra callers to make them worthwhile. These are essential no-limit hold’em concepts. POKER HAND NICKNAMES With the game of poker literally becoming the most popular card game, poker hand nicknames have become more prevalent than ever. The following list contains most of the popular poker hand nicknames: POCKET PAIRS AA American Airlines Rockets Bullets Snake Eyes 77 Walking Sticks Sunset Strip (TV show title) KK Cowboys King Kong 66 Route 66 Boots (for the slight resemblance of a 6) QQ Ladies 55 Speed Limit Presto JJ Fishhooks or Hooks 44 Magnum (the .44 Magnum pistol was Dirty Harry’s gun) Sailboats 1010 Dimes 33 Crabs Treys 99 Phil Hellmuth (won the 1989 Main Event with two black nines) Wayne Gretzky (the Great One’s number) 22 Ducks (the 2 is similar to a duck’s shape in water) 88 Snowmen Piano Keys (88 keys on a piano) UNPAIRED STARTING HANDS AK Big Slick Walking Back to Houston J5 Jackson Five Motown AQ Doyle Brunson (the poker legend hates to play AQ) J4 Flat Tire (what’s a jack for?) AJ Ajax 105 Woolworth (discount store chain) A10 Johnny Moss 104 Broderick Crawford (his catchphrase in "Highway Patrol") A8 Dead Man’s Hand (Wild Bill Hickok was holding Aces and Eights when he was shot and killed) 102 Doyle Brunson or Texas Dolly (he won both his WSOP Championship with this modest holding) A3 Baskin-Robbins (an Ace is also a 1, making 31 for 31 flavors) 98 Oldsmobile (the classiest model was 98) KQ Marriage 93 Jack Benny (always claimed to be 39 years old) KJ Kojak Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling) 76 Union Oil (owns Union 76 gas stations) K9 Canine Fido 75 Heinz (for Heinz’ 57 flavor varieties) K3 King Crab Commander Crab (a 3 is often called a ‘crab’) 72 The Hammer QJ Maverick (Jacks and Queen from the ‘Maverick’ theme song) 63 Blocky (from Doyle Brunson’s Super System) Q7 Computer Hand (statistically, this is the average winning hand in hold’em) 54 Jesse James (he was allegedly killed with a shot from a .45 pistol) J6 Railroad Hand (supposedly, repeating ‘Jacks and Sixes’ sounds like a train on its tracks) OTHER HANDS AKQJ10 Broadway 222 Huey, Dewey and Louie (three famous ‘ducks’) A2345 Wheel AKQJ10 Nuts KKK Three Wise Men AQQQQ Quads 101010 Thirty Miles of Bad Road (Gilroy to San Jose) AQ1052 Golf Bag QQKK Mommas and Poppas AQ101010 Set (using a pocket pair) Trips (using a pair on the board) AK47 Assault Rifle (named after the Russian machine gun) KQ1062 Paint